Lauren Marinigh

suicideToday marks a day that may not be that important to many, and it will probably also go unnoticed by most, but National Suicide Prevention Day should mean more to you than you may think. Why? Because even if you haven’t known someone who was taken by suicide, there’s probably someone in your life that has suffered from suicidal thoughts.

There are approximately 3,500 suicides each year in Canada, slightly below the deaths caused by colon and breast cancer. It’s the 10th most common cause of death in both males and females. Yet nobody talks about it?

The scariest part about suicide is that it can be affecting someone in your life and you may not even know. People look at it as an ugly thing, they don’t look at it as a disease, they look at it as a choice. When someone looses their life to suicide, it’s hush hush, and maybe that’s the problem.

When I was in grade 7 I had a fellow classmate commit suicide. For a grade 7, it was pretty hard to wrap your head around, I don’t even think I knew what the word “suicide” was before that day, yet I still remember it as if it were yesterday. That day the meaning of suicide and the power of it completely turned my life around, and the sad part is, without that day happening in my life so young, I probably wouldn’t have ever had a full understanding or grasp of it.

Why is something that falls on the list of the top 10 causes of death in Canada not talked about? Why don’t kids learn about this like they learn about cancer, sex, or drugs in school? Maybe that’s the reason the death toll behind suicide is so high, nobody talks about it, nobody knows how to deal with those feelings, and people are scared they’re going to be judged, when in reality they aren’t alone.

Suicide will never have millions of dollars raised for it like cancer does, you won’t see an Ice Bucket Challenge go viral to raise awareness about it, and when someone takes their life they will still continue to report it as “died suddenly” in the newspaper. We need to stop hiding suicide, and stop making it seem like it’s ugly, it shouldn’t take personally knowing someone who committed suicide to make you realize how scary it can be to be depressed, feel alone, and feel like you can’t talk to anyone about it.

My personal experience with losing someone to suicide has changed my entire perspective on it and one day when I have children I plan to teach them about suicide, and depression, and how to cope with it. Lets stop hiding from this, stop pretending it’s not happening, and begin to make a change in the way society thinks.